AMG Newsletter – Super Bowl Marketing To Super-Size Results!

Dear Reader,

As I write this letter, wet snow is sleeting across my block, turning into gray slush as it hits the street and cars roll over the wet mush.

In a loft across the street, a man on stilts is washing the 12 foot windows. I could use him to help me clean out the apartment my husband and I are in the process of renovating.

The Joe Pesci character from My Cousin Vinny would have a field day asking me about the problems seeing what was in my delete-worthy video. (Hence, no video!)

To jog your memory, I’ll shorten his question to this one: “What’s that schmutz on your window?”

► February Marketing Celebrations

Happy Holiday Packed February! No matter who you are, chances are there’s a holiday tailor-made for you.

This month’s celebrations include:

• Black History Month
• American Heart Month (Also includes Women’s Heart Health Week and Red Dress Day)     
• Data Privacy Day reminds you to change device passwords and back them up. At Citibank, we had to change our passwords every month. As a result, many people kept their “secure password” on a post-it on their computer monitor where anyone could see it. BTW, if you need help with your computer backup, Chris S. Penn explains what to do. (Thursday, February 1st)
• Groundhog’s Day lets you honor your favorite weather person and watch the Bill Murray film by the same title. Hat tip to Weather Person Jennifer Ast! (Friday, February 2nd)     
• Chinese New Year. Happy Year of the Dragon! (Saturday, February 11th)
• Super Bowl Sunday (Sunday, February 12th)
• Mardi Gras (Tuesday, February 13th) While enjoying the holiday, be aware that it creates a significant amount of chemicals that are dangerous to humans including lead as well as to the environment such as heavy metals and toxic waste. Annually tens of millions of pounds of Chinese-made plastic Mardi Gras beads are imported to the Gulf Coast area annually causing these serious problems. (Source: Inside Climate News)
• Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, February 14th). In 2024, shoppers will spend $25.8 billion to celebrate Valentine’s Day or an average of $185.81 per person, according to NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics survey. Their spending breaks out as follows candy (57%), greeting cards (40%), flowers (39%), an evening out (32%), jewelry (22%), clothing (21%) and gift cards (19%).     What I love is that even people who don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day is finding ways to enjoy the holiday.

  

  Recommended Reading

  • 14 Ways To Romance Your Audience With Content Marketing
• President’s Day honoring President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln (Monday, February 19th)
• Leap Day and Sadie Hawkins Day. It won’t be back for another 4 years (Thursday, February 29th)     

From a marketing perspective, February gives you your money’s worth for holiday-related themes and promotions across your various products and client segments.

Actionable Marketing Tip

• Choose the holidays that matter most to your business, products and customer segments (including where your business is located.) Ideally use one holiday per month to change your content and promotions.

► 2024’s Super Bowl LVIII Best Ad

This year’s best Super Bowl ad in my opinion was Beyonce trying to break Verizon’s 5G internet. Posted on YouTube, the ad garnered 400,000+ views in the first 20 hours after it appeared on the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRaBlE6maf4

Why did I consider the ad a winner?
Since Beyonce is known for breaking the internet, Verizon showed that her stunts even going to outer space didn’t break their 5G network.

Using a high priced celebrity in your Super Bowl commercial does NOT ensure that the ad will succeed in supporting your product and help to build your brand.

Unlike many celebrity-focused ads, Verizon’s Super Bowl ad spotlighted Beyonce in a way that worked for the brand and the celebrity. Queen Bey played a sax number appropriately called “Let’s Get Saxy” and her new avatar, BeyonAI.

When the Verizon ad ended and Beyonce couldn’t break Verizon’s 5G, she said, “Ok, they ready. Drop the new music.” Then, Beyonce’s team dropped the videos of two singles from her new album entitled, Renaissance Part II. It’s due out on March 29th.

Here’s the song “Texas Hold ‘em” on YouTube where it received about 1.4 million views in the first 20 hours of posting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238Z4YaAr1g

Here’s the YouTube video of “16 Carriages”. It received roughly 1.3 million views in the first 20 hours after posting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhKNjTb6U1Y

Actionable Marketing Tips

• Ensure that your Super Bowl ad reinforces your product and brand message. Verizon made sure their spokesperson let Beyonce knew that she hadn’t succeeded in breaking their 5G network after each stunt in the 1 minute, 30 second ad. This added multiple brand impressions.
• Don’t place new technologies and trends into your marketing without appropriate context. Otherwise viewers will remember your ad for being tone deaf. For example, Beyonce introduced her new AI avatar and it reinforced the idea that she couldn’t break Verizon’s 5G network.
• Have related new content ready to drop as soon as your ad ends. Beyonce took full advantage of the Super Bowl’s super-size audience to announce her new album and to get viewers to go to her website and social media sites. This resulted in millions of earned views that she didn’t pay for.

Bonus Non-Super Bowl Actionable Marketing Tips

• Use other people’s platforms to increase your brand impressions. For example, if you’re a speaker at a conference or other event, use the opportunity to spotlight your brand. Participate in related marketing and content.For example, 360i got after its 2013 “Dunk in the Dark” real-time tweet for Oreo. The advertiser got significant earned media due to a prepared advertising and social media team watching the game with creatives ready to respond.
• Give attendees and viewers a reason to visit your site. Add a slide with a free giveaway. Chris S. Penn often uses a special, easy-to-spell website to send people to his presentation and other offers. The key to successfully getting traffic is to offer value. This doesn’t translate to requiring an email address exchange. Instead offer additional premium content.

► Apple’s 1984 Ad Still Stands Out

Apple’s 1984 Ad Still Stands Out

Forty years later, Apple’s one minute 1984 Super Bowl ad still remains in a class by itself. Based on George Orwell’s book, 1984, the ad pitted the Macintosh against IBM, the leading PC at the time as Big Brother. Directed by Scott Ridley, who had directed Blade Runner and Alien, the commercial positioned the Macintosh as the revolutionary new computer.

Created by Chiat/Day for $650,000 not including the media cost, Apple’s ad ended with the tagline “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’ ” The 1984 ad generated the equivalent of $150+ million of free media air time based on the discussion and replay of the ad. (Source: csmonitor.com)

Actionable Marketing Tip

• Make sure your marketing and advertising support your branding and advertising. The key to success is understanding what sets your product and brand apart from similar and substitute options. To help your business get your positioning right, I strongly recommend that you read April Dunford’s Obviously Awesome.